1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to circuit line detection systems and, more specifically, to determining circuit configurations and/or locations from a common node point, such as an electric circuit breaker box.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Circuit location and identification becomes increasingly difficult as the number of circuit lines increases and the circuits themselves become more complex. For example, large office buildings have exceptionally large electric cabling and electronic cabling requirements. The electric cabling and electronic cabling requirements of these office buildings frequently change because the needs of the tenants often change. When a tenant desires a change office space functionality (e.g., power, communications, lighting, etc.), an electrician is often tasked to reconfigure the cabling systems of the office building to accommodate the tenant's needs. These changing requirements often result in more complex circuital systems with certain circuit lines becoming unidentifiable.
Such changing electric cabling and electronic cabling needs are not limited to office buildings, however. Homes and industrial buildings also have changing electric cabling and electronic cabling requirements due to improvements and/or modifications to such structures. For example, a homeowner may wish to add another power outlet to a particular location in the home. As most homes are configured with at least one circuit breaker box in which all power lines are centrally connected, the homeowner (typically through the assistance of an electrician) may run a line from the desired power outlet to a circuit breaker within the breaker box. As is often the case, the connection of this new line, as well as connections of existing lines, to a circuit breaker box is unidentifiable and/or mislabeled.
Certain methods exist for identifying circuit lines within the system. For example, one typical manner in which a power line of a power outlet can be identified includes positioning a person (e.g., an electrician) at a circuit breaker box and another person at the power outlet. The person located at the power outlet may use a test device (e.g., a test light that plugs into the outlet) while the person positioned at the circuit breaker box arbitrarily “flips” circuit breakers until the person at the power outlet communicates that the circuit breaker has been identified. This process is a time consuming process that utilizes multiple people (e.g., two times a number of man-hours to identify a circuit). Moreover, many organizations (e.g., those which run electronic business systems, electronic hospital systems, computing systems, etc.) cannot afford a power loss while a circuit breaker is being “flipped”, or tested.